Abstract: »Changing understandings of rape over the centuries and the consequences of these for those involved in sexual violence are featured in Conley's essay. Views on the nature of the offense, the offender, the victim, and the legal response to sexual violence varied wideley and shaped the harms attributed to the act; perhaps paradoxically, Conley argues, the use of rape as a metaphor for other forms of oppression may have mitigated reactions to interpersonal sexual violence.« (Source: Bill McCarthy and Rosemary Gartner. »Introduction.« The Oxford Handbook of Gender, Sex, and Crime. Edited by Rosemary Gartner et al. Oxford 2014: 9)